(Ginnie Graham, Tulsa World) Because of $31 in marijuana sales, Patricia Marilyn Spottedcrow is now serving 10 years in prison, has been taken away from her four young children and husband, and has ended her work in nursing homes.

The two women were arrested for drug distribution and because Spottedcrow’s children were in the home, an additional charge of possession of a dangerous substance in the presence of a minor was added […] They were offered plea deals of two years in prison but decided to enter a guilty plea instead, a gamble they took because neither had prior convictions and because the amount of drugs sold was so small.

How is this justice? What a joke! Overly-politicized, totally Draconian “drug war” laws, TRUMPED UP charges (“possession of a dangerous substance in the presence of a minor”), and a woman with four children, a career working in nursing homes (although, recently unemployed), and NO PRIORS! And, also involved in what the State claimed was “an extensive operation,” this woman’s mother received a 30 YEAR suspended sentence for her involvement (meaning that a single, minor new arrest will land her in prison for 30 years). Take HEED, EVERYONE! THIS is how VICTIMLESS CRIMES are dealt with in America today! And, these are our tax dollars at WASTE!

Also according to the article:

Oklahoma’s two prisons for women, the maximum-security Mabel Bassett in McLoud and minimum-security Eddie Warrior in Taft, housed 2,622 prisoners last year. Of those, 48 percent are serving time for nonviolent drug offenses and 22 percent for other nonviolent offenses such as embezzlement and forgery. Of the 1,393 women received by Oklahoma prisons last year, 78 percent were identified by DOC as minimal public safety threats.

Witness the State, as they break up homes and destroy lives in order to keep the privatized PRISON-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX packed with able-bodied slave-laborers! As a NON-CRIMINAL, and a productive member of society, the woman in this article will likely make a PERFECT ADDITION to this abominably unchecked, unbalanced system of PROFIT!

Interestingly enough, this woman’s mother was given her more “lenient” 30-year suspended prison sentence because it would allow her the ability to take custody of her daughter’s four children. However, in order to harshly sentence her daughter in the first place, the State claimed that the “children were involved” in the “extensive operation” of these two woman, simply because they were inside the residence where the “drug deals” took place (though there is no indication that they were present during the “exchanges”). Apparently, even the State doesn’t actually believe in the legalistic fairytales they create in order to unfairly prosecute citizens! Sickening!